ESCANABA — Art created by Bay College students over the past few months will be on display in the Besse Center Gallery through Dec. 16 in the college’s fall 2019 student art exhibition. A reception for the exhibition took place at the college recently.

Arts Faculty and Fine Arts Coordinator Kristine Granger said she is “very excited” for people to see the exhibition.

“The students worked incredibly hard throughout the semester,” she said.

Bay classes with works featured in the exhibition include Digital Cinema I & II, Installation and Performance, Intro to Art Design and Drawing I.

During the reception, which was held on Thursday, Dec. 5, the winners of Bay’s Purchase Prize Awards for the fall 2019 semester were announced.

“It becomes part of the permanent collection here at the college,” Granger said of pieces chosen for these awards.

The Purchase Prize Award for Drawing I went to Allison Ross for her untitled self-portrait. Ross said she began making the piece by printing out a black-and-white photo of herself.

“I just measured it and made it two times bigger and drew it all in drawing pencil,” she said.

The process of creating her self-portrait was initially difficult for Ross, but she said it was ultimately rewarding.

“Once I kind of … kept going with it, I got more excited about how it would turn out,” she said.

For Installation and Performance, the Purchase Prize Award went to Halle Gustafson for her installation “Fluid.” According to Gustafson, who said she is the only woman in Bay’s welding program, the piece prominently features welded metal.

“That was something that really … inspired me to incorporate welding in this piece,” she said of her experience in the welding program.

Embroidery is also an important part of the piece. Gustafson noted “Fluid” was designed to combine mediums that are traditionally considered feminine and masculine.

“I just had this desire to convey the physical tying together of them I felt within myself,” she said.

Other Purchase Prize Awards were won by Digital Cinema I student Jane Karweick, Digital Cinema II student Nathan Tuffnel, and Art and Design student Jacinta Gesperich.

Along with Bay students, members of the public and people working at the college attended the reception.

“It is always exciting to see the students’ art. They’re wonderfully creative and learning lots, and we always enjoy this show a great deal,” President Laura Coleman said.

Social and Behavioral Sciences Division Chair June Klees, who is also a history professor, said she enjoyed the opportunity the exhibition gave her to see Bay’s students in a different light.

“I absolutely love the creativity — it’s always amazing and wonderful to see the minds of our students outside of the classroom,” she said.